Delicate Sensibilities
by RaptorChicky
Summary: A "what-if" based off a flashback from "Nelson v Murdock". What if Matt told Foggy the truth on those steps? Drabbles about what could happen next. Chap 2: Matt comes to a crossroad
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N:_** Drabble inspired when I asked myself what would have happened if Matt had fessed up to Foggy on those steps in that one flashback in "Nelson v Murdock". I have a few other drabbles in mind that follow along this line of thought (and they most likely won't be published in chronological order), including The Reveal itself. This is just an idea that wouldn't leave me alone until I released it into the wild (I may or may not be completely obsessed with the show), so try to resist from flaming the hell out of it, though I would still like some sort of feedback!

**_Warnings:_** A word or two, but nothing that would warrant the FCC shutting me down. Just Matt and Foggy being idiots.

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own the characters within this piece and I do not have enough money to buy out Marvel/Disney and I'm certainly not making a profit off this. I'm just borrowing Matt and Foggy for the time being and I'll put them back once I'm done. Maybe...I might want to keep Matt for a while...

**Chapter 1**

Foggy is mad at him for little over a day, which in Foggy-terms, is a life time. By the time the weekend is over, Foggy is acting as if nothing had happened, though Matt can _feel_ his friend's curious eyes on him whenever they're out. Matt also notices small shifts in Foggy's habits: he no longer brings that heavily spiced curry into their room and whenever he has music or the TV on, the volume is lower than normal. Even his grooming habits have changed—he's tossed his scented toiletries and has switched over to lightly scented or scent free products. Matt appreciates the effort Foggy's put through, but insists it isn't necessary to make all those accommodations for him.

Foggy just waves his concern off. "Everybody needs someplace where they can retreat from the world… And besides, the ladies are really digging on my natural man scent…"

It takes one week after The Reveal for Foggy's curiosity to finally reveal itself, in the form of a legal pad with at least 2 pages of questions scribbled out. Questions like, "Can you tell the differences between colors?" or "What would happen if you got sprayed by a skunk?" or "Are there any other blind ninja dudes running around, and how many asses have you kicked?" or "What is sex like for you?"

The good little Catholic boy inside of Matt has the good grace to blush at that last question…

Two weeks after The Reveal found them hiding in a dumpster in Hell's Kitchen.

"Why did I let you talk me into this…?" Matt mutters as he pushes down on Foggy's head and pulls the lid down on top of them.

"Not my fault those guys are sore losers... And oh my god, I think I'm standing in something…"

Foggy's grand idea had involved making a few bets with some rough looking individuals in an equally rough looking bar in the Kitchen, insisting his blind friend could clear them out in poker…double or nothing. Of course, Matt ended up with a pile of money in front of him, but the Russians had NOT taken kindly to being taken to the cleaners by a pair of inebriated law students and had accused them of cheating. Matt had miraculously gotten them out of the bar in one piece once the brawl started and then the two of them hauled ass down the street, with a small mob of pissed off Russians on their tails. They had ducked into an alley, where Matt pushed Foggy towards the dumpsters. Foggy protested, and Matt assured him it was empty and told him to quit his bitching and get in. Foggy toppled in, ass over teakettle, as Matt lightly hurdled over the dumpster's rim.

Drunken voices yelling in Russian made the two future lawyers freeze, and even in the dark, Foggy could feel how Matt went absolutely still as he focused all his senses on their pursuers. The voices raced past their hiding spot and it wasn't until Matt released his breath that Foggy did as well.

They waited a few more minutes before they finally crawled out of the dumpster.

"Foggy…?"

The other man looked up from where he'd been examining the bottom of this shoe, "Yeah?"

"Let's not make a habit of this, ok?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings:** Mentions of sexual assault on a minor, blood, language...this chapter is NOT like the first one...author's notes at the bottom

**Disclaimer:** Again, the characters mentioned within are not mine, and I am not seeing a profit for doing this

(_Italics_-thoughts)

**Delicate ****Sensibilities**

**Chapter 2**

It was a typical Nelson get-together: big, loud, and boisterous. Foggy's mother had insisted on throwing a belated post post-graduation party to celebrate her darling boy setting up his own practice and had invited the entire family and roughly 2/3 of the neighborhood. She'd been disappointed her adopted son (typical Mama Bear Nelson, always taking wounded little ducks into her care, especially those of the Matt Murdock variety) couldn't be there, but had accepted Foggy's explanation—he'd seen the dark circles under his friend's eyes and **knew** it wasn't just from stress, and thought it best to let Matt rest. She'd simply huffed and promised to set aside enough cake and other goodies for her other 'son' (which, knowing her, would be enough to feed Matt for a week), before plowing back into the sea of well-wishers.

It was closing in on midnight now, and the party was starting to slowly wind down, and Foggy was just about to start up on his fifth bottle of the night when a certain Kenny Loggins' song came from his back pocket. He fumbled with his phone for a moment before managing to hit the 'accept' button.

"Buddy! Change your mind about coming? We've still got plenty of cake if you want it!"

Silence was the only answer Foggy got, and the sudden spike of worry started to sober him up.

"Matt?" Foggy pulled away from the crowd and headed for the only quiet place in the house. "Matt, you there…?"

"…Foggy?"

He heaved a quick sigh and shut the bathroom door behind him. "Yeah, I'm here…what's wrong?"

A shuddery breath filled Foggy's ear, "I think- I think I'm about to do something incredibly crazy or stupid or both…"

Foggy would have normally made a crack about Matt's behavior, but the bleakness in his friend's tone caught his attention. "Matt… What's. Wrong?"

"Remember that little girl I told you about…?"

"Yeah," Foggy muttered, furrowing his brow, "you called CPS on that sicko—"

"They let him go Foggy—they couldn't find any evidence and the mother didn't believe it… They let him go… And- And he hasn't stopped…"

Foggy buried his face in his free hand and sagged against the bathroom counter. "Ah, shit… Couldn't- Couldn't you call them again? Make them take a closer look at this asshole?"

"And tell them what, Fog? That the blind guy two blocks away can hear him assaulting his own daughter? No, the law failed her, and this has to end. Now."

The emptiness had disappeared from Matt's voice, only to be replaced by a harsh coldness, something Foggy had never heard from him and it scared him for a moment. "Matt. What are you doing?"

"…I'm looking right at him, Foggy. I'm looking right at that son of a bitch…"

"Matt-!" The drunken haze was quickly being burned away as Foggy yelled into his phone. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, Foggy, but…but I can stop him…I have to stop him…I'm sorry…"

"Matt? Matt?! MATT!"

Too late—Matt had already hung up. Foggy nearly ripped the door off its hinges in his rush to escape the bathroom and narrowly missed colliding with the remaining guests as he barreled straight for the door, only to be stopped by his mother.

"Franklin…?"

"I'm sorry Mom, but something's come up with Matt… I gotta get to him…"

"What's wrong with Matthew? Do you need me to drive you to his place?"

Whatever crap Matt had decided to get himself involved in, Foggy knew he didn't want his mother anywhere near it. "No. No, I'll catch a cab. I'm sure it's nothing, Mom—he's probably had too much to drink or something…" _Or he's getting himself killed right now…_

"Well, all right…" She stepped aside, but not before shoving a large Tupperware container into Foggy's hands. "Go take care of him, Franklin."

He gave her a wan smile, pecked her on the cheek and raced out the door. Once outside, Foggy didn't bother calling for a cab—at this time of night and in this part of the Kitchen, it would take longer than if he simply ran to where he knew he could flag one down. _Goddammit Matt! Why do you have to live on the other side of town?!_ Fifteen minutes later, he was finally catching his breath in the back seat of a cab, and biting down on his cheek to keep himself from telling the cabbie to fuck the speed limit and step on it. Once outside his stop, Foggy nearly shoved the cake at the cabbie before remembering to dig cash out of his wallet and bolted out of the cab, not bothering to get his change back. Inside the building, he cursed the six flights of stairs, and at the top, he ignored 6A and went straight for the roof access door. On the roof, he knew where Matt hid the spare key for his 'back door', dug it out, and rushed back inside, leaving the door open behind him. Now, in Matt's darkened apartment, Foggy gingerly made his way down the steps.

"Matt…?" he called out once he reached the bottom. "You here?" Still clutching onto the Tupperware, Foggy checked the bathroom and bedroom, looking for any signs of his friend, but the only things he found that were out of place were the cane leaning against the wall by the bathroom door, and the doors to the small closet under the stairs that were flung wide open. Beyond that, the apartment was quieter than normal, leaving Foggy at a loss for what to do—try calling Matt again (he'd tried in the cab and got the voice mail), or call the cops? _And say what? That my best friend is probably doing something he shouldn't, and oh, by the way, he's blind?_ He absently set the container down, and pulled his phone back out; he worried at his lower lip as his finger hovered over the bottom button, debating over his options, but a faint creak overhead solved his dilemma. "Jesus, Matt! What hap—" Foggy had hurried to the foot of the steps, but froze when he finally got a good look at his friend in the flashing pink and white light.

Running shoes, sweat pants, a zip-up hoodie with the hood pulled back… Blood trickling from a split lip, and another wound high on his right cheekbone… The blood bothered him, but what really struck Foggy as odd was how Matt seemed to be in a daze, how he seemed to sway as he came down the steps…and then Foggy saw Matt's hands…

"Oh, holy shit! Matt! Is that- Is that blood?!"

Matt paused on the last step and brought his wrapped hands up to his face, as if he could truly see them and Foggy noted how they trembled. "It's… It's not mine. It's not mine…"

"Matt… What did you do?"

"I didn't- I didn't kill him. I'm not a monster…I'm not the monster here…"

"…No, no you're not, Matt…" Slowly reaching out, Foggy lightly took Matt by the elbow—Matt twitched at the sudden contact—and gently guided him to the bathroom. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up…"

Under the soft glow of the bathroom lights, Foggy could finally see the full results of whatever Matt had done: there wasn't just blood on his knuckles—some had spattered onto the sleeves and chest area of the hoodie, and he could see the start of a black eye. As he gently unwrapped Matt's hands and washed them off, Foggy let Matt mumble about how he found the man, followed him, waited till he was alone, and then proceed to beat the ever-living shit out of him ("I let the Devil out, Foggy..."), promising to return if he ever touched his daughter again. At this confession, Foggy cringed, and he wanted to yell and scream at Matt, wanted to demand if he realized how stupid he was, if he understood the legalities of what he had just done, but he could feel the faint tremors still running through Matt's body, and he could see how Matt was still pale from shock.

Yelling could wait.

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah, I know. Total mood whiplash when compared to Chapter 1... TBH, this was actually the 1st scene I envisioned when I came up with this alternate story line, but I didn't want to start the fic off with something I consider rather dark. This whiplash pattern might continue as I (hopefully) add more chapters to this story, with chapters flipping between the more light-hearted, to the more darker realities of Matt's life and its impacts on Foggy. I would've added this earlier, but I've been busy with end of semester stuff (and I really should be studying for my finals this week), but this was something that wanted to be let loose as well. As such, this hasn't been beta'd by anybody else, but I've gone through it a few times and have hopefully caught any errors. I realize the sentence structure tends to ramble and ignore all the rules in spots, but in my head, it fits the tenseness of the chapter (or I'm just coming up with excuses cuz I'm too damn lazy to fix it, but whatever). Thanks for reading, and as always: REVIEWS

(Headcanon: Foggy's ringtone for Matt HAS to be "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins)


End file.
